What health care challenges will face our nation’s youth?

Young people should pay close attention to what’s happening with health care in our country because they will have to deal with it — whether under ACA (Obamacare) or our current system. How is our current system doing — a system that’s at 17 percent of our nation’s GDP currently and predicted to reach nearly 20 percent in the not-to-distant future?

Perhaps this chart says it best?

I realize many young people feel they are bullet proof and that they have no need for insurance, but that is not necessarily the case, as many of us who have reached some ripe old ages can attest. It’s nice to enjoy a nice, strong, healthy body, but that can change in a New York second with one slip, one accident. Any number of scenarios offer even the most fit and hearty individual potential problems and disabilities that may affect their futures negatively.

I will admit there are challenges facing youth with regard to jobs that pay little and make covering insurance premium costs difficult. However, when I was young, I had jobs that paid very little and provided no company insurance, but I was always able to scrape together enough money to pay a premium. Young people would do well to review their budgets to determine where they’re spending money that could better be spent to ensure a better future for themselves. Yes, individuals can decide to dump their health care on the system by showing up at the emergency room when needed, but that’s been shown to be a major cause of our escalating health care costs.

Even generally healthy young people can be faced with unknown issues such as the young man featured in a Wall Street Journal article who died from an undiagnosed hereditary aortic aneurysm. He seemed healthy in other ways. This may be an unusual case, but it points to the fact that young people can’t always know what’s going on inside, even if as the hit show “Hairspray” main character sings, ‘But on the outside, I look good!’

Additionally, over the past sixty or so years, we have seen chemicals become more and more a part of our lives and their subsequent effects on our health have been documented. Young people are just as at risk for exposure — and perhaps more with some of the jobs they have — than older folks … exposure that may make their otherwise healthy condition suffer.

Young people can’t count on being that healthy given the obesity statistics that are challenging our country currently labeled the “fattest nation on earth.” A book titled “Fat Land” clearly explains the problems our country faces and how they’ve developed over the past sixty-plus years.

A variety of factors including governmental policies in the Department of Agriculture, poor parenting, schools promoting fast foods, small business administration policies that supported fast food franchises, doctors who fail to address patient weight issues for fear of losing patients, and many others have created a perfect storm for the obesity epidemic we face. It’s not just old people who are putting demands on our health care system as many young people like to assert. It’s also young people who have been manipulated by a system bent on getting them to buy poor quality food, who now have little ability to restrain their eating habits.

Obesity in young people will cost in more ways than just health care needs and possible early death; so having insurance to promote health and get weight under control is essential.

A Wall Street Journal article pointed to the fact that obesity can harm kids’ financial futures. By consuming more calories, people usually spend more money. Obese people spend 36 percent more on health services than people at normal weight — from co-pays to prescription drugs. Young overweight parents will pay more for life insurance to protect their children — that’s assuming they’re even willing or able to pay for that type of insurance. Finally, obese Americans accumulate only about half the net worth of their non-obese counterparts.

I guess the other side of this argument might be explained by a recent Dutch study that found obese people from age 20 to 56 experienced the most expensive health costs, but because the obese people died sooner than the study’s healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run. So, I suppose if obese young people don’t want to buy health insurance, they don’t have to, but I suggest they may want to get control of their weight so they don’t put undue demands on our nation’s health care system. It’s not just old people who cost, and I’m not sure dying at a younger age would be most people’s preference.

Some young people are getting the right idea. A recent letter to the editor in The Spectrum by a college student said it well. Here are a few excerpts from the letter:

“The Affordable Care Act allows me to focus on my schooling, so I can pay for my own health care. With the Affordable Care Act, I have more freedom to choose a job I love rather than a job to survive. Finally, it forces Americans to take accountability for their actions.”

Thanks to Jordyn Hanevold of St. George for these insightful comments. In fact, there are many young people who feel trapped in jobs they may not like due to fears of losing health care coverage if they leave. How much better would it be for young people to feel free to explore their employment options in an unfettered manner and know they have their health needs covered otherwise? What level of productivity is lost by having workers who feel trapped rather than workers who enjoy their work?

We don’t know where the ACA will take us. But reform is absolutely necessary and should have been done back in the ’90s or earlier before we reached this point. With 17 percent (18-20 percent projected) of our GDP going to health care costs, compared to say 11 percent for Switzerland and 8 perent for Japan, change is needed. Not only are others paying less, their populations are healthier. Additionally, approximately 50 percent of Utah’s bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

During my May trip to Europe and at other times prior to that, I’ve talked with citizens of various countries that have health care covered due to reforms in their countries. A couple from Canada who are both physicians said they’re very satisfied with the system. Challenging the idea that health care reform is viewed negatively by physicians. Another Canadian resident expressed similar feelings about that system.

Germans I spoke with said they’re happy with their coverage as did a French guide who expressed satisfaction with the French system. These may not be scientific surveys, but they are personal and not filtered through a biased lens possessed by those who may stand to benefit financially. In any case, I hope that young people in our country are giving serious consideration to their futures and where our health care system will take them.